The invention relates to a method of manufacturing a spin valve structure of the giant magnetoresistive GMR) type, which structure includes a stack of a magnetic layer, a non-magnetic layer and a sense layer of a ferro magnetic material.
A spin valve structure is a magnetic multilayer structure which has a magnetoresistance effect. This implies that the resistance of such a structure changes under the influence of an external magnetic field. In the case of spin valve structures the magnetoresistance effect is mostly referred to as the giant magnetoresistance (GMR) effect. Many of the present magnetic disk devices use spin valve structures as sensing elements. These structures also find application in devices of other technical areas, such as in automotive sensors and in magnetic RAMs.
Only the section magnetic layer/non-magnetic layer/sense layer of a spin valve structure contributes to the GMR effect and is consequently the active area of the structure. Other areas, the non-active areas, of the spin valve structure may shunt electrical current from said active area. Some interface layers present in the structure may reduce the GMR effect by introducing non-specular reflection, i.e. the electrons are scattered, resulting in loss of their spin information.
A paper identified by C-7803-5555-5/99; IEEE, page DB-01; entitled xe2x80x9cCo Fe specular spin valves with nano oxide layerxe2x80x9d by Y. Kamiguchi et al, discloses a spin valve structure of the giant magnetoresistive type. The following sample is discussed in this paper: SiO structrate/Ta 5 nm/NiFe 2 nm/IrMn 7 nm/pinned layer with NOL/Cu 2 nm/CoFe 2 nm/CoFeO 4 nm/TaO 0.4 nm. In this sample the spin valve structure is a CoFe specular structure with metal anti-ferromagnetic materials for exchange biasing. This structure has a pinned layer containing a nano oxide layer (NOL) for enhancing specular electron scattering. The sample was deposited by magnetron sputtering.
In the spin valve structure disclosed in said IEEE paper the active area comprises the pinned layer with the NOL, the Cu layer and the CoFe layer, wherein the NOL serves to reflect electrons.
An object of the invention is to provide a method by means of which it is possible to realize a spin valve structure having an effective means for specularly reflecting electrons at the location of the sense layer.
This object is obtained by the method according to the invention as defined in claim 1, i.e. a method of manufacturing a spin valve structure of the giant magnetoresistive type, which structure includes a stack of a magnetic layer, a non-magnetic layer and a sense layer of a ferromagnetic material, which method includes a step of oxidizing the ferromagnetic material of the sense layer, followed by a step of depositing aluminium on the oxidized ferromagnetic material of the sense layer, whereafter this aluminium oxidizes to an aluminium oxide film using oxygen from the oxidized ferromagnetic material of the sense layer. In this way an Al-oxide film is formed by successively forming an auxiliary oxide film on the sense layer, forming a metallic Al-layer on this auxiliary oxide film and oxidizing the aluminium of this Al-layer by using oxygen from the auxiliary oxide film. Generally, the said layers are thin-film layers. Each layer may be a single layer or may have a multilayer structure. The magnetic layer can have a magnetization fixed or pinned by various means, known per se. A suitable material for forming the magnetic layer is e.g. an alloy of CoFe. The non-magnetic layer may be formed of Cu. The magnetization of the sense layer is free to be affected by an applied external magnetic field. Preferably, the metal Co, an alloy of CoFe or an alloy of NiFe is chosen as the ferromagnetic material for forming the sense layer. Since aluminium is more electronegative than either Co or Fe the auxiliary oxide is reduced during oxidation of Al to metallic Co, CoFe and NiFe, respectively, and an Al-oxide is formed.
It has been proven that the aluminium oxide formed in the above way is a closed oxide and yields a sharp interface, which provides a specular reflection and thus does not perturb the electron spin mechanism of the active area of the structure, resulting in an considerably improved MR signal. An Al-oxide layer of about 2 nm appears to be an excellent protection against oxidation of the sense layer, so that ultra thin sense layers can be applied. Such sense layers are required for high density magnetic recording because of the need of high sensitivity. Measurements have shown that the coercivity of the structures obtained is relatively low, of the order of 15 Oe, and exhibits hardly any temperature dependence. The method according to the invention can utilize of thin-film technology known per se.
It is to be noted that a paper identified by O-7803-5943-7 4/00; IEEE, page FA-07; entitled xe2x80x9cEnhancement of GMR properties of bottom type spin valve films with ultra-thin free layer covered with specular oxide capping layerxe2x80x9d by Y. Shimizu et al, discloses a CoFeB free layer covered with an Al-oxide capping layer formed by pure Ar gas sputtering of an Al2O3 target. The method known from this paper is entirely different from the method described in the present patent document, because no auxiliary oxide is formed as oxygen source for forming the Al-oxide. Since oxidation from an auxiliary oxide is absent in the device resulting from the known method and interface mixing is likely to occur, the effects obtained by the method according to the invention are not obtained by this known method.
It is further to be noted that a paper identified by IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, vol. 35, no. 5, September 1999, pages 2946-2948; entitled xe2x80x9cEffects of interface oxidation in ferromagnetic tunnel junctionsxe2x80x9d by Masashige Sato et al, discloses tunnel junctions with oxidized Al barriers. In a sample disclosed, a surface of a bottom Co layer of a tunnel junction magnetoresitive (TMR) device was exposed to air, prior to the depositing af Al, whereafter the Al layer formed was oxidized in rf oxygen plasma. In said paper it is assumed that the oxidized Co surface acts as a diffusion-prevention layer and the unoxidized Al layer will be oxidized with the oxygen atoms from the oxidized Al and the oxidized Co by annealing. All the knowledge as to the method, device and effects disclosed is the last-mentioned paper is restricted to TMR structures; no information relating to GMR structures is derivable from this paper.
The invention further relates to a spin valve structure obtained by the method according to an invention. Thus, the spin valve structure according to the invention has interface oxidation at the location of the sense layer. In general, the structure may be provided with a pinned layer with NOL as disclosed in the first-mentioned IEEE paper.
The invention further relates to a read head, a field sensor and a magnetic memory, respectively, each provided with a spin valve structure of the giant-magnetoresistive type obtained by or obtainable by the method according to the invention.
The invention further relates to an apparatus for reading information from a magnetic storage medium, the apparatus including the read head according to the invention.
The invention further relates to an electronic circuit including a magnetic memory according to the invention.
With reference to the claims, it is to be noted that various characteristic features defined in the set of claims may occur in combination.
The above-mentioned and other aspects of the invention are apparent from and will be elucidated, by way of non-limitative example, with reference to the embodiments described hereinafter.